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JIN ANSWER TO 


4--Z-4 

REMARKS ON 


»R« C HANNING’S SLAVERY, 


. > * * 



OTIS, BROADERS AND COMPANY, 

1836 * 

















c Vf. 

'•V * 








Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by 
Minot Pratt, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of 
Massachusetts. 


^74-r 




/ 3/1 


<*> 


I. 





On the proper treatment of the slavery question the hap¬ 
piness, the highest interest, and even the existence of our 
country depend. We engage in the discussion with deep, 
unfeigned reluctance ; but the Remarks on Dr Channing’s 
Slavery by a Citizen of Massachusetts appear to us grossly 
and fatally erroneous; we should esteem it a dereliction of 
duty to abstain from their exposure. A reply to them by 
Dr Channing would be far the most able, appropriate, and 
satisfactory. But we understand he has with his usual for¬ 
bearance and magnanimity declined even to peruse the Re¬ 
marks, having been apprised of their containing the most 
violent personal abuse of hi/nself. This we trust will be a 
sufficient apology for our noticing and a sufficient justifica¬ 
tion for his declining to notice these Remarks. 

The author confesses himself a lawyer, and one, he need 
not add, grown gray in prosecutions and indictments, for 
this is perfectly apparent in the formidable indictment which 
has been so powerfully drawn by him against the Southern 
States, a more appalling one was never framed. 

He alleges in this the conviction of our whole New-Eng- 
land population, including himself accordingly, of the vast 
evils of slavery ; of the moral and social and personal de¬ 
gradation that it brings with it; of the sin and misery and 
wretchedness in which, with ‘ retributive justice , it involves 



4 


• ;Iasses of the community in which it is found ; this, and 
e than this, he declares is the common feeling of ouy 
New England population. Now as a friend of our country, 
a relative of some, a warm friend of all our Southern breth¬ 
ren, we protest against these accusations, so damnatory to 
all the population of the South. 

No man, without the perverted ingenuity of the Remarker, 
would undertake at this late day to draw such an indict¬ 
ment against a whole people, which Burke long ago declar¬ 
ed impossible. And this is perpetrated by whom ? Their 
own volunteer advocate, ally ancl friend, whose duty it was 
to defend them. Not content likewise with the usual form 
of indictment, he has inserted here the pregnant denuncia^ 
tion of ‘ retributive justice* against slave owners for the sin 
and misery and wretchedness of which they are supposed to 
be the authors. Now to Heaven only are these owners 
amenable ; ‘retributive justice’ can be administered to them 
by none other than the Almighty. It is therefore an 
avenging Deity he invokes against our Southern brethren, 
and threatens them with the torments of the damned. In 
the words ‘ retributive justice’ is contained the quintescence 
of those blasphemous anathemas which the Vatican de¬ 
nounced of old against the excommunicated. 

And to what man among us may the South best appeal to 
defend them against their assailant? Incredible as it may. 
seem, to none other than Dr Channing himself, though he is 
denounced by the Remarker as their arch-enemy. In his 
book, so vilified, abused and misrepresented, we find him 
declaring ‘ I do not intend to pass sentence on the character 
of the slave holder’—* I speak of the injury endured by the 
slave, and not of the character of the master. These are 
distinct points.’ ‘ It does not follow that he who does it 
(injury to another) is a depraved man, he may do it in the 


5 


belief that he confers a good.’ ‘ Our ancestors of the NojjjL 
were engaged in the slave trade, were not some of them the 
best of their times?’ ‘ Still more, there are masters who hold 
the slave chiefly if not wholly from disinterested considera¬ 
tions.’ ‘ There are many of them who would shudder as much 
as we, at reducing a freeman to bondage, but are appalled by 
what seem to them the perils and difficulties.’ * There are 
many who nominally holding the slave as property, still hold 
him for his own good and for the public order, and would 
blush to hold him on other grounds.’ He acknowledges 
there is more affection in the relation of slavery than could 
be expected, and that the slaves are instructed in religion, 
‘the most cheering sound which comes from the land of 
bondage.’ 

The Remarker, as if he anticipated that this defence of 
the South against him might be resorted to, attempts to dis¬ 
qualify Dr Channing as a judge, by alluding to him as a 
* theoretic, secluded scholar, giving lessons in his study.’ 
But which of these twe, their accuser or their defender, is the 
better qualified to estimate the character of our southern 
friends correctly ? Dr Channing resided a long time in our 
Slave States,and passed a winter in another Slav« country,the 
West Indies ; whilst this lawyer,«o far as we are informed, 
though he advances his opinions with audacity, has in the 
mean time been immured in his office, and nothing knows 
of setting a gang of slaves in a field, more than a spinster. 

The imputation we notice next against a portion of the 
South arrests us with horror; one of a more dark and dan¬ 
gerous aspect never before entered a distempered imagina¬ 
tion. It contains within itself indeed a combination 
-of the most unheard of charges against two of the most 
innocent and inoffensive parties in existence. First against 
our fair sisters of the South, gentlewomen of angelic purity 


6 


# d lofty pride of character; of reputations charmed,* no$ 
!y unsuspected but unaccused. And such they will for¬ 
ever remain. The atrocious allegation of the Remarker 
must and will be retracted. There breathes not the man, 
there exists not the fiend who would deliberately publish, 
and maintain, that the high-souled wives and daughters of 
the South, stand impeached of that sin, which, ‘ though to 
radiant Angels linked will feed on garbage’—Unchastenessl 
That they stand impeached of this by Dr Channing, their 
friend, for so long a time their inmate, so true, correct and 
competent a judge ! Yet such the Remarker distinctly, not 
deliberately we trust, declares to be the fact. And in doing 
so, he is guilty of a charge, yet more aggravated if possible, 
against that Reverend Gentleman himself. 

In what manner such a publication ought to be treated, 
whether it should be visited with reprobation from the pub¬ 
lic press in return ; or whether it ought rather to be referred 
to the consideration of the Attorney-General and the Grand 
Jury, we are entirely at a loss to determine. As it regards 
ourselves however we feel authorized to consider these 
charges as personal reflections only, and not within our 
province to discuss. To confute would be to countenance 
the imputations ; for it would seem to admit the existence of 
the slightest apology for any one to imagine they were ever 
dreamt of by Dr Channing. But we may be told his words 
are quoted by the Remarker. Be it so; we are perfectly 
content the Remarker should be judged by his quotation. 
The curse pronounced against language, was more exten¬ 
sive we believe than is commonly imagined, but in the pas¬ 
sage quoted there exists not the slightest confusion. The 
inference attempted to be drawn from it by the Remarker we 


* Macbeth says, ‘ I bear a charmed life.’ 


7 


should consider supremely ridiculous were it not at the same 
time supremely incendiary. The character of these charges in 
this respect is so utterly discordant, that were it not discour¬ 
teous, we might pronounce them, as Voltaire does his 
countrymen, a monstrous compound of the Tiger and the 
Ape. The simple charge alone and lucidly conveyed in 
the quotation from Dr Channing, against gentlemen, and 
them only, in slave countries, our southern friends if they 
take it to themselves, will consider as the merest baga¬ 
telle.* 

A subsequent publication, by the Re marker certainly, de¬ 
clares, the Remarks went to the press four days after Dr 
Channing’s appeared. This lame and impotent apology 
confirms our belief that the gentleman must perceive and 
acknowledge his mistake. We have endeavored to express 
our opinions with courtesy ; and without imputing to him 
criminal intent. 




* We were informed by one of our Boston clergymen that, 
whilst he was travelling at the South, he heard gentlemen there 
discussing the merits of their colored mistresses in the barber’s 
shop, as a matter of common conversation, and without the slight¬ 
est restraint whatever from the presence of company. 





8 


IT. 


The next charge against the South by their defender, is as 
aggravated as any we have yet considered : and perhaps 
more so, inasmuch as the immortal soul is infinitely more 
precious than our humble tenements of clay. He imputes 
to the South an unwillingness to teach their slaves religion. 
Dr. Channing observes—‘ But the Slave, we are told, is 
taught religion. This is the most cheering sound which 
comes from the land of bondage.’ And he recommends not 
only preaching, but their being taught by the whites in Sun¬ 
day Schools.—In answer to this, the Remarker represents 
the unwillingness of the South to follow this advice as so 
notorious and incorrigible, that he applies to Dr Channing 
the complimentary phrases, ‘ another day dream,’ ‘ extreme 
childishness,’ and ‘ honest simplicity,’ for recommending it. 
In connection with this he sneers at preaching as a resort 
for the relief of slavery, and classes it with the expedients 
of <government’ and ‘ legislatures,’ which he had already 
scouted as most ridiculous and exploded expedients for the 
same purpose.—Spirits of the Pilgrims! that this writer should 
be one of your descendants. 

It is impossible in the nature of things that this imputa¬ 
tion against the South should be deserved. It is well known 
there is no deficiency of religion among our southern fami¬ 
lies, a religion not so cold and philosophic perhaps as our§. 



9 


but heart-warm, enthusiastic, fanatic if you please, but a re¬ 
ligion which would harrow up their own souls were they to 
neglect the religious improvement, the eternal salvation of 
the souls of their slaves ; were they to presume to partake 
of the bread of life freely themselves, whilst they refused 
at the same time to break it as freely with their dependants. 

It is perfectly well known too and confessed at home and 
abroad, that it is for the immediate secular advantage of 
the master, that the slave should be instructed in religion. 
This appears abundantly in the parliamentary debates re¬ 
ported by Clarkson. And it is perfectly well known that 
the same belief prevails every where in our own country ; 
and were proof wanted it would be found in the interesting 
and authentic work of Professor Andrews. It is but a year 
or two since, delegates from Columbia College visited the 
North to obtain funds for a theological professorship in that 
institution ; and one of the principal arguments relied on 
to induce contributions was, that proper teachers might be 
educated to instruct the slaves in religion. This ground 
was taken by the delegates and by Mr Lumpkin, an eloquent 
and eminent Lawyer from Georgia, who addressed the meet¬ 
ing assembled for the purpose in Boston, where about two 
or three thousand dollars were contributed ; and we shall 
be told by the Remarker, doubtless, that all who assisted at 
that meeting were as great dolts and idiots as DrChanning, 
It is not only impossible that the slaves should not be in¬ 
structed in religion, it is notorious and appears in the most 
ordinary documents that they are so already. The Remark¬ 
er cannot open his almanack, American Almanack for 1834, 
without perceiving that in a single sect in our country, the 
Methodists, there were 73,817 colored persons, regular mem¬ 
bers of the church, communicants. They have since in¬ 
creased to 83,156, If we were to judge from this sect only 


10 


we should'find that the blacks are already better instructed 
and more religious than the whites. According to Professor 
Andrews there are in Baltimore alone four or five colored 
congregations and two other churches, with all of which 
flourishing colored Sunday schools are connected. He says 
‘the doctrine lately maintained in New England, that the 
gospel cannot reach the heart of a slave, finds little to coun¬ 
tenance it in the actual condition of the southern churches.’ 
We beg leave to confirm the authority of Professor Andrews 
as to the readiness to teach their slaves religion in S. Caroli¬ 
na,* by our own observation whilst there a year or two since. 
The blacks were admitted to all the churches as communi¬ 
cants and sat down to the same communion tables with the 
whites. Nearly all the churches had Sunday schools for their 
instruction, and until the present excitement they were 
taught to read: it is now discontinued. 

We proceeded thence to Georgia, and passed the Sunday 
at Savannah, where the day was observed as religiously as 
in our New England. The blacks had here two congrega¬ 
tions, one taught by a white, the other by a black preacher. 
The slaves from the neighboring plantations were permitted 
by their masters to attend with the utmost readiness, ex¬ 
cepting those who from drunkenness or other vices could 
not be trusted. The scenes we witnessed here, we are en¬ 
abled to describe with the same correctness as when they 
were passing within our own observation. They will for¬ 
ever live freshly in our remembrance. Our recollection of 
those scenes, together with our heart-felt gratitude for the 

* Bishop Bowen by order of Episcopal Convention, S. C., says, 
Both the duty and the wisdom of the Christian seem to me to 
consist in giving the slaves in the condition in which they are, the 
knowledge of God, &c. 

In South Carolina, one-seventh of the whites and one-seventh 
of the blacks are communicants. 


11 


hospitality and kindness which enabled us to observe and 
enjoy them, will be alike imperishable. 

We departed from Savannah for the country, to visit some 
plantations. It was early spring 1 , and the temperature itself 
a luxury, the ride the most romantic imaginable, to us who 
had just been transported for the first time, in a short pas¬ 
sage from the fast anchored ice of the north to a country of 
tropical productions, to earth, water, and trees loaded and 
festooned with a profusion of flowers of every enchanting 
variety of form and hue, from the flowret demanding our 
glasses, to the most magnificent flowering tree in the world, 
the magnolia grandiflora, whose summit the eye must seek 
for among the loftiest tops in the forest. The frequent 
plantations were resplendant with their verdant carpets of 
vegetation springing into life. But this scene, however it 
was in still life quite unparalleled, was surpassed by the 
beauties of animated nature, the brilliant plumage, enchant¬ 
ing music, light and graceful action of the innumerable 
feathered tribes, the lowly bright-plumed heron, the buzzard 
sailing in the skies, and the well named nonpariels, but 
above all, the tuneful mocking birds, each one a perfect 
band, a panharmonicon, making the whole air vocal with 
their enlivening strains. 

We arrived at the plantation of our friends, the passage 
was unfolded by a smiling, contented black, and introduced 
us to the highest social happiness, religious, moral and in¬ 
tellectual enjoyments, to hospitality, friendly, unaffected and 
sincere, mindful at once of the real comforts of life, and not 
oblivious at the same time of the just and interesting claims 
of charity and benevolence to all the unfortunate, the poor 
and needy of the human family. It was on the banks of 
the beautiful Ogechee, a harmonious name, most deservedly 
bestowed on this sweet flowing river, for it signifies in the 


12 


native Indian language, the beautiful water. The bound* 
less, rich and highly cultivated savannahs on its banks, teem¬ 
ing with all the richest products of cultivation, were in per¬ 
fect keeping with the interesting stream. The habitation 
was a perfect bijou, a fairy place, simple, light and airy, ap¬ 
propriate to the clime, and depending for its ornament and 
beauty on the tasteful and flourishing trees, shrubs and 
plants, which surrounded it—the palm, the magnolia, and the 
rose, in which it was so charmingly embowered. A sublime 
remnant of the primeval forest, which, without the faith of 
the Druids, one might almost adore, one of the loftiest and 
broadest spreading live oaks in America, expanded its pow¬ 
erful branches over the dwelling, as if to preserve it harm¬ 
less against every menacing ill. It supplied a degree of 
grandeur to the scene which left nothing wanting to render 
it perfect. 

At early morn we attended the solemn family orisons, 
in which the colored and the white, without distinction, 
kneeled down with equal humility at the foot of the throne 
of God. From this hallowed scene all departed to their 
several occupations, every one of them animated with the 
kindest affection to all the rest, and the soul exalted to de¬ 
termined resolution to perform with religious exactness 
every incumbent duty.—There was not a single colored 
slave there who did not vie with their employers in devoted, 
enthusiastic interest in the prosperity of the whole planta¬ 
tion—their beloved home; and each one of them was en¬ 
tirely conscious that this would be the personal property of 
every member of the family. The natural and necessary 
result of their animated labors may well be imagined with¬ 
out our describing the high cultivation, abundant production 
and rapid improvement of the whole estate. But we beg 
leave to continue our narrative to the close of the day. The 


13 


labors of the day completed, each colored family resorted to 
the commodious, well boarded cottage allotted to it. A 
range of these cottages lined each side of a broad, clean 
lane or place, and to each of them was attached a small 
lot of land, to be cultivated by the tenant in the hours be¬ 
longing to himself, gained by a performance of his stint or 
otherwise. And all that he could raise from this, in produce 
or stock, was his little peculium, his most gratifying, com¬ 
fortable, exclusive property. With this produce they ar¬ 
dently trafficked not only with each other, but with their 
master and family, and we Yankees smiled to see they were 
as keen at a bargain as our kinsmen at home. 

The conscientious family did not retire to their calm re¬ 
pose without committing themselves again to the arms of 
their Almighty Father, and humbly beseeching him to pre¬ 
serve them during the silent watches of the night. The 
day ended as it had begun, and the last closing hymn of the 
service appeared to have touched that chord of harmony 
which seems to vibrate instinctively in all the colored race. 
Long after the meeting had closed, they gratified their mu¬ 
sical propensity by continuing their hymns, the usual close 
of their daily enjoyments. W e were soon gratified by a 
simple serenade of the same music, with which they volun¬ 
teered to treat us, and we were highly delighted, not only 
by the real concord of sweet sounds they produced, but infi¬ 
nitely more so, by this manifestation of their overflowing 
gratitude and affection for the family, and of kindness and 
hospitality to their guests. We have listened to the high¬ 
est concerts at home and abroad, and witnessed the superb¬ 
est strains of Catalani and the Woods, but we are perfectly 
sincere in declaring we never experienced from them one 
half the enjoyment afforded us by the simple, heartfelt music 
of these happy blacks. Their understandings, though un- 


14 


cultivated by letters, could comprehend and enjoy the simple 
sentiments of the songs, which lent them an acknowledged 
respectability of character. During this time we were in 
the delightful piazza of the mansion house, the scene was 
lighted up by the moon in its utmost possible splendor, rival¬ 
ing the day, and 

‘ The floor of heaven 

‘ Was thick inlaid with patines of bright gold.’ 

It was a scene to which the bard of Avon alone could do 
justice, affording the highest delight to the sight, the hear¬ 
ing and the heart. And when the family bid our serenaders 
good repose, we partook with our hosts in social enjoyments 
of intellect and taste which were not to be surpassed, but 
which we have no authority to intrude upon the public. 

Our description is in a great degree applicable to the two 
or three neighboring plantations with which we were ac¬ 
quainted. On others, where the owners did not feel quali¬ 
fied to furnish religious instruction to their slaves themselves, 
they entreated their neighbors to provide them instructors, 
which was acceded to with gratified alacrity. 

We must be permitted to gratify a little Northern jeal¬ 
ousy, envy if you please, at the superior advantages of the 
South we have described, by acknowledging that, like every 
thing human, they were attended with disadvantages, prov¬ 
ing, what every one knows, that unalloyed happiness is not 
on this side heaven. As the sword of Michael expelled our 
first parents from their paradise on the Euphrates, the sword 
of pestilence approached with the nearly vertical sun to 
banish our friends for a while from their paradise on the 
sweet Ogechee, and their affectionate dependants were of 
necessity at the same time committed to Overseers, who 
not being distinguished usually for religion or romance, 
would not be in keeping with the rest of our narrative. 


15 


in. 


Were our whole negro population assembled, after the 
manner of the Athenians, and the Remarker, with sounding 
trumpet, could make himself heard by every individual among 
them; he could not possibly deliver a fourth of July oration 
on freedom more perfectly appropriate and delightful to them, 
than is contained in his Remarks on Channing’s Slavery. 
With all his perverted eloquence he could not better make 
the vault of heaven resound with their thunder of applause. 
Were he disposed like Ate to ‘ cry havoc and let slip the 
dogs of war he could not better rouse their souls to fury 
and madness, sharpen their daggers and point them to the 
hearts of their masters, and lead them on to glut their dread 
revenge, than by delivering them an oration out of his Re¬ 
marks. 

We will select a few passages to justify our statements, 
and then to the defence of the South as best we may. The 
doctrine advanced by Dr Channing, that slaves and all other 
persons are morally, politically, and religiously bound to 
obey the government under which they live, has been per¬ 
fectly settled ever since the world began, for it lies at the 
foundation of all human society. Were mere private per¬ 
sons to resist the law even unto death, it could result only 
in the useless murder of themselves and a few harmless 
victims, unless indeed it were to render the chains of their 



16 


surviving friends a thousand times more galling. This doc¬ 
trine is clearer than the noon-day sun ; as clear as the 
ineffable light of heaven beyond it. Dr Channing observes 
that man can not be rightfully, though he has been legally 
enslaved, and ‘to government the individual is in no case to 
offer resistance.’ The Remarker in direct contradiction to 
him responds, if man can not be rightfully made* a slave, 

‘ There is, then, no legal Slavery, and can be none. The force, 
therefore, that restrains the slave, is oppression, injustice, tyranny, 
despotism ; and if, against all this, a man may not rightfully rebel, 
if, when he is thus unjustly made a slave for life, and his wife and 
children are made slaves with him, he may not rise, in his strength 
or his madness, and shake off his chains, and stand guiltless before 
God, with the blood of his oppressor on his hands, it is in vain to 
talk about human rights. 

It is absurd to tell of wrongs without remedy. For every hu¬ 
man wrong there is a remedy; by law, when the law provides one, 
and by resistance, when under the color of law, instead of a reme¬ 
dy we find only a wrong.’ 

£ If the law of Carolina should propose to detain every white 
traveller passing through its territory, and turn him on the planta¬ 
tion as a slave,’ * Is there an arm that would not reach him a dag¬ 
ger, if it could ?’ ’ 

As 4th of July orators so long as their climax can be ex¬ 
tended farther always advance audaciously to the ne plus 
ultra, so our orator caps his climax, by addressing his col¬ 
ored audience as follows ; we say addresses his colored au¬ 
dience, because he tells us himself, the world is a whispering 
gallery, and that every thing published is heard by the 
slaves. He supposes a case, of the people of Massachusetts 
being enslaved by their own domestic government, that is 
by constitutional laws, for our government can act by no 
other means ; now this is precisely and identically the case 
of our slaves under the laws of their own States ; and on 
this he remarks, 


17 


‘ But the slaves are not to be treated as a case of a single, solitary 
individual. There are more than two millions of them, and near¬ 
ly as many as the number of American citizens in 1776. There 
are three times the number of the whole population of Massachu¬ 
setts ; and if any government, foreign or domestic, was to doom the 
free-born and gallant sons of our Commonwealth to Slavery, and 
there w'as one of them that should tell you that government must 
not in such case be resisted, he would be fit for the Slavery to 
which he was destined—ay, truly, to be the slave of slaves.’ 

Now this is dreadful rhodomontade to be sure; but 
dreadful, unfortunately, in a double sense; it is dreadfully 
incendiary, deadly. If believed in, it would deluge our coun¬ 
try in blood. Were Cataline revived, he could not better 
stir the stocks and stones of our southern states to mutiny. 
It must put our most frantic abolitionist to the blush to be 
left so far behind by this fiery dragon knight of wonder and 
amazement. But if he will condescend to dismount from 
his high horse for a moment, we will entreat him to recol¬ 
lect, when somewhat cooler, that he has furnished a complete 
confutation of himself, where he observes, 

‘ This idea of going behind and beyond the law to find a rule for 
human action in civil society is getting to be somewhat alarming. 

One man thinks the law- of marriage is a monopoly and should 
be abolished ; another thinks a distillery is an abomination in the 
eye of Heaven, and that its owner is out of the protection of all 
human law 8fc' 

The Remarker and the public must be satisfied we pre¬ 
sume with his own confutation. So perfectly familiar are 
our countrymen with this subject, that to dwell on it, might 
be justly considered an insult to their understanding. The 
right of resistance was perfectly settled here by our revolu¬ 
tion. We did not claim a right to resist Government, until 
we had a prospect of success, till we were numerous and 
powerful enough to enforce the privilege to be considered 


18 


regular belligerents, instead of lawless rebels. And the 
true limitation of this right was as clearly and distinctly de¬ 
fined by our Shays and Whiskey insurrections ; causes so 
utterly hopeless as to render the insurgents murderers and 
assassins, allowing even they were unjustly oppressed. And 
such we need not say would be the case with our poor, igno¬ 
rant, unarmed, isolated blacks, were they, in accordance with 
the counsel of the Remarker, to rise against ten million 
well armed and organized, free Americans, 

Take even a stronger case than any he has supposed, 
that of the Christian missionaries, Worcester and Butler, 
abducted by Georgia from the country of the Cherokees, 
and enslaved in a prison with convicts. Had they enter¬ 
tained the same opinion with the Remarker, and drawn their 
daggers on their innocent and unoffending jailers, acting 
under the laws of their country, but alleviating, to the full 
extent of their power, the misfortune of their prisoners ; can 
the Remarker or any one doubt for a moment, that they 
would come before their Maker with the blood of themselves 
and their victims on their heads, for condign punishment ? 
We should be ashamed to refer to authorities on this sub¬ 
ject, were it not for greater caution in a case of life and 
death to millions. Paley says, ‘ Not every invasion of the 
subjects’ rights or liberty, or of the constitution, by the chief 
magistrate, or by the whole or any part of the legislative 
body, justifies resistance ; unless these crimes draw after 
them public consequences of sufficient magnitude to out¬ 
weigh the evils of civil disturbance.’ He cites from scrip¬ 
ture * The powers that be are ordained of God. Whoso¬ 
ever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of 
God.’ Blackstone says ‘ Over zealous republicans, because 
resistance is justifiable when the being of the State is en¬ 
dangered, and the public voice proclaims resistance neces¬ 
sary, have allowed every individual the right of determining 


19 


this expedience, and of employing private force to resist 
even private oppression. A doctrine equally fatal to civil 
liberty as tyranny itself.’ The carelessness of the Remark- 
er, to use no harsher term, in advancing these opinions, if 
not deeply criminal, is grossly inhuman. There is a care¬ 
lessness of human life so reckless that it is construed by law 
into malice aforethought. 

The Remarker might justly charge us with want of can¬ 
dor, were we to conclude without acknowledging that he 
has, with the most impartial sophistry, maintained in his 
work, other opinions diametrically opposite to those we have 
controverted. Not content with his professional privilege 
to argue any side of a question, right or wrong, this char¬ 
tered libertine assumes the right to argue both. And though 
sworn to support our constitution and bill of rights, he has 
not thought it inconsistent in him to attempt a defence of 
slavery. He has argued that side of the question, against 
our poor colored countrymen, on the following grounds. 
That their value is from 250 million to 800 millions of dol¬ 
lars, and that their masters therefore will never consent to 
release them, nor listen to reason and argument on the sub¬ 
ject. That Scripture sanctions slavery, because God by 
special revelation allowed the Jews to hold their own coun¬ 
trymen in bondage for seven, and the Gentiles for fifty years. 
That Washington, Jefferson and Madison are authorities in 
favor of slavery. Now it is not our cue to fight the battles 
of the abolitionists for them. These gentlemen, it must be 
acknowledged, are sufficiently combatant already without a 
prompter. We are perfectly content to leave the Remarker 
to their tender mercies. In parting from the gentleman 
however we entreat him, never to impose on us again the 
same unpleasant task, by attempting to answer, in four days, 
an elaborate production from one of the greatest writers 
living, on a subject of such vital importance. 


























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